1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to portable electronic devices and their accessories and more particularly to methods of operating the accessories.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable electronic devices are ubiquitous in today's society. Many of these devices, such as cellular telephones, two-way radios or personal digital assistants, include connectors for receiving a wide variety of accessories. For example, many of these devices can receive a headset accessory that includes one or more speakers and a microphone. Many headsets now include two speakers, while a significant number of headsets only have one speaker. To accommodate both types of headsets, the portable electronic device to which a headset will be coupled may include two separate audio amplifiers because two-speaker headsets may require them to deliver stereo audio.
Such an arrangement works efficiently for two-speaker headsets, as both amplifiers are used to provide audio gain. If the headset only includes one speaker, however, only one of the amplifiers will be used to amplify audio; the remaining amplifier will simply cause a needless current drain, a disadvantage that simply cannot be afforded because of the limited amount of battery life in today's portable electronic devices. Additionally, the unused amplifier may be susceptible to damage because it may be grounded when the one-speaker headset is coupled to the portable electronic device.